Catholic Woman’s Almanac {CWA}
Laaaate Sunday night, I am…
Thanking God For
::the sound of Chris and Leo breathing slow and melodic as they sleep
::the windchimes on the front porch providing the soundtrack for this post
::our dog obedience trainer at Pet Smart (Lucy is 1000% improved according to our trainer after just one class. Yes, she was that naughty at our first class that she is now 1000% better. But better does not mean she can be trusted to be out of her kennel when the chickens are out. She stays out until about 4pm and then we kennel her and let the chickens out until about 7pm and then they get locked up and she can once again roam around.)
::going to an Apologetics Seminar with my daughters
::Maximilian in the “Children’s Choir”
::Veronica planning to make Bridget’s First Holy Communion/Confirmation dress and Anna’s Confirmation dress with help from our neighbor
Planning
I have tried emeals and I like the concept, alot, but our one problem was that constant variety. I know that sounds strange doesn’t it? I recently signed back up to use their slow cooker menu plus their breakfast and lunch menu. Then I found Plan to Eat. I’m already committed to emeals for 3 months but I can already see where Plant to Eat is going to be a better fit for our family.
In the Garden
This weekend we planted a bed of tomatoes, a bed of peppers, a Lavender bush which has mysteriously disappeared from the ground overnight, zucchini and pumpkins, beets, radishes, corn and peas. Our little orchard is looking good. I also planted two sweet potato vines in our Mary Garden and Sunflowers on the back side of the house.
Reading
40 Days to a Joy-Filled Life: Living the 4:8 Principle
The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life
Praying the Scriptures for Your Teenagers: Discover How to Pray God’s Will for Their Lives
The Hermitage Within (Cistercian Studies Series)
Learning Lessons In
I am learning some lessons in bending so as not to break.
Making
I am crocheting one big ‘ol Granny Square in various colors in the hopes of presenting it to Chris on his birthday in July. I am also making myself pick up my camera when I don’t feel like it and when I don’t think I have the time. You know how “they” tell you to drink lots of water. And if you wait to get a drink when you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated? Well, that goes for me and my camera. If I wait “until” to pick it up, my soul will already be dehydrated. Come to think of it, the same can be said about reading the Scriptures too.
Wandering Around the Web
10 Quotes That Will Change the Way You Attend Holy Mass
Saint Theophan the Recluse on Prayer
Quotable Guide to Attending Holy Mass
Captured
She’s been making flower crowns for the younger ones.
Catholic Woman’s Almanac {CWA}
Welcome to Monday’s at Suscipio. Link up your own version of an online Daybook or journal or share in the comments. Take time to visit each other and offer encouragement to each other for the week. Let’s get started…
Thanking God for
::a warm fireplace to congregate with our God family
::Pioneer Woman’s Spicy Pulled Pork for a very satisfying lunch/dinner
::the dedication of a loving priest who has enthusiastically welcomed and abundantly provided and continues to provide for our parish family
::crochet lessons from my neighbor who is also my friend (Crochet “lessons” sounds way more formal than it actually is. Really we sit at our table and talk and crochet together.)
::Giving a ride home to 2 homeschool boys in our group and hearing the book suggestions fly back and forth across the rows of seats in the van.
::naps to catch up on sleep lost last week when everyone had colds
Reading
The Hermitage Within
(This book may take a while. I had not even made it past the first page and needed to make a call to my spiritual director.)
Holiness for Housewives: And Other Working Women
(I read this book about 10 years ago and have picked it back up for our Book Club.)
Honey for a Woman’s Heart: Growing Your World through Reading Great Books
The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Catholic
The Way of Trust and Love – A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux
Pondering, Praying and Thinking Out-Loud
I am in need of a change. Change does not necessarily mean ditching what I’m doing now. In my case, that would be a bad thing. But I do need to make some changes…now.
I started Suscipio last year when I had a 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3 and baby tucked up tight in the womb. I now have an almost 15 year old, high school freshman down to a–now walking–one year old and everybody in between, plus a handsome husband and then there’s me. To say I am needed would be an understatement.
In addition to all that goodness of a growing family–this past year has also worn me down and beaten me up. Friends I thought were life long–kiss on each other’s grand babies life long–openly mocked and maligned me, lied to me and about me, sabotaged my children’s birthday party, publicly questioned our parenting and forced our hand to make decisions we never thought we would have to make.
I’m tired.
I am tired of my children finding me on the computer. This is not entirely Suscipio’s doing, but Suscipio does take some time. I am tired of telling my children, “Just a minute.” I am tired of Leo cruising around the dinning room chairs to get to me at the computer. Suscipio has begun to feel more like a burden more than a creative, communal outlet. And that’s not good.
But getting rid of Suscipio is not a valid answer. I spoke recently with my husband and my spiritual director extensively about Suscipio. These two men know my innermost self. And both of these men were very clear in the fact that Suscipio serves a good. This good is two-fold.
Suscipio has provided a place for Catholic women to come together and share their stories, their prayers and their heart. The body of Christ working together to encourage, teach and learn from each other is a good thing.
Suscipio has also provided me a creative outlet. Without a creative outlet, I become a burden to myself…you understand? I am daily encouraged by the comments you all leave for each other. I am in the front row for each story, pulling out the nuggets I can apply to my own life. And I’m always humbled by your generous prayers for each other. I honestly feel like there is no place else on the web like Suscipio.
So how to reconcile my need to continue Suscipio and my need to respond to the call of wife and mother in my own little Domestic Church?
Well, the first step is to grant myself grace. I say myself, because I know you all already do. Here’s how I need to grant myself some breathing room. If I don’t get a post up…that’s ok. If I get a post up late…that’s ok. If the Book Club post goes up on Thursday instead of Wednesday…that’s ok. If I am the only one talking about the book…that’s ok. If…If…If…that’s all ok. I can walk away from the computer mid-post and pick it back up an hour later, or a day later or two days later. I can post a picture on my personal blog without feeling guilty because I have not done anything on Suscipio for the day.
So you are maybe wondering why I had to make this big long post to say, “Things may look a little different around here, but Suscipio is still here.” I needed to say all this because Suscipio would not be here with out you all and I needed to let you all know what had been rolling around my head for the past couple of months.
Captured
Catholic Woman’s Almanac {CWA}
Jenny | Big Family Small Farm
On this Monday, February 18, the Feast of St Bernadette Soubirous, I am…
Thanking God the Father for
::a weekend away with my three closest friends
::a new commitment to prayer and fasting
::seeing my husband and children after being away for 44 hours
::Leo being such a cooperative guy at our weekend away
::girlfriends who love on the only guy allowed at the lake house
::staying in my pajamas ALL day Saturday
Listening to
I am typing this on Sunday night, so I hear a shower running…washing a day’s worth of play off my boy. I hear Bernadette humming as she cleans up the kitchen and Leo and Anna playing together before bed.
Pondering
I am pondering how hard it is to live in this age of so much technology that is touted as a necessary. I pray my children will look back on their childhood and appreciate the fact that we tried to keep it simple. My children do not have Facebook. Chris and I do not have Facebook. (Suscipio does for posting purposes only.) We do not text, our phones don’t even have the ability to text. We do have a couple of ipods floating around here, but that is the extent of of i-things. I do not mention this to say “look at us.” I mention it strictly as a fact of our life.
I am not saying these things are necessarily a bad, but I question if they are more of a distraction than they are worth. Does being more connected, mean people are less connected with the people right in front of their face? Does the ability to be so connected with everyone leave any room to be connected with our Lord? And if life is constantly thought in narrative form so we can post about it, does life ever enter meditative form?
Reading
Hallowed Be This House: Finding Signs of Heaven in Your Home
The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
The Way of Trust and Love – A Retreat Guided By St. Therese of Lisieux
Lectio Divina and the Practice of Teresian Prayer
Wandering Around the Web
Easy Cheesy Hot Bean Dip
Garden Planning/Planting Printables
Teach Your Children Mental Prayer
Captured
The winner of the St Valentine Giveaway is Rebecca Witt. Please email me Rebecca so I can get these books to you.
Moments of Grace
Join us each Friday here at Suscipio as we look back over the week. The week that may have caught you off guard but always blessed you. Now’s your opportunity to step back from the day to day, and see the moments that made those days full of grace.
“Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor… Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.”
~ Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Did you spread love or where you difficult to love? And please don’t answer out loud because I don’t want to. Let’s resolve to do more of one and less of the other in the coming week.
Link up or join us in the comments. Share a story, poem, gratitude list or single photo. Show us God’s amazing grace in your life. And then take the time to visit or comment the other lovely ladies.
Moments of Grace
The beginning of the week starts in a flurry of things to do, places to go and people to see. The middle of the week is the push to get to the end of the week and the end of the week promises at least some respite. It’s in this end, this temporary intermission between the week and the weekend that we can pause, if only for moment, and appreciate the moments of grace the week brought us.
They were there, these moments of grace. They may have been fleeting and the noise and demands of life may have tried to drown them out, but they were there. They were in the strength to do what we thought we could not do, to accomplish what we thought impossible and even to enjoy what we were afraid we may miss.
So take a moment to look back on your week and recall these glimpses of grace as they wove themselves into the flurry of your life. These glimpses can be a a gratitude list, a story full of rich detail, or a simple photo revealing the glory of God in a messy toddler, a dew kissed petal, a glorious sunrise or a magnificent sunset.
If you blog, share a blog post containing your gratitude list, grace story, or picture from the week. You could even choose one from your archives showing the movements of God’s grace in your life; encouragement doesn’t have a time limit. Link up here on Fridays for “Moments of Grace.” If you don’t blog, share your grace moments in the comments of Friday’s post.
Blog or no blog, take time to visit each other, look and listen to the grace stories, the mysterious and unique ways in which God moves and works and lives in each one of us.
Grab a button for your post
Catholic Woman’s Almanac {CWA}
Moments of Gratitude
::riding to daily Mass with a friend
::spending Thanksgiving with my sister and her family
::my sister taking our 2012 family picture
::leaves falling
::a good confession
::leftovers
::older girls who are so helpful
Praying
For continued healing for our parish and quick a final resolution from our bishop.
Pondering
If someone tells you something about them self…believe them. If someone blesses and curses out of the same mouth, pay close attention to what they have just revealed about their character.
Meditation: Jesus, condemned to death must take His cross to Calvary. “Who is the true murderer of Jesus? Who is responsible for His execution?” asks St Augustine. He answers: “It is the tongue of the Jews. Hateful and jealous, they have made of their tongues a sword with which they pierced Jesus, when they said to Pilate, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’” This is what tongues are doing every day. With suspicions and hasty judgments they utter criticisms and improper remarks, sometimes lies and slander. How many reputations bad tongues have ruined and killed! There are some who under the inspiration of jealousy and revenge feel a secret joy and a malignant satisfaction in attacking others. These slanderers will have to render to God a severe and formidable account.
Prayer: O Lord, place a curb on our tongues; surround our lips with a barrier of carefulness, so that we will not hurt our neighbor through our criticisms, our detractions and our calumny.
–The Second Station, For the Intention of Fraternal Charity, taken from The Way of the Cross: A Treasury of Stations
Reading
The Way of the Cross: A Treasury of Stations
The Ignatius Bible: Revised Standard Version – Catholic
Barclay’s Guide to the New Testament
Memorizing
Magnificat
Catholic Women Bloggers to Encourage
Christina::The Recovered Catholic
Sara::Handmaid of the Immaculata
Captured
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Welcome back Catholic Child Catalog as a sponsor of Suscipio. Suscipio and Catholic Child Catalog have partnered almost all of 2012!
Looking for some St Nicholas gifts? How about a saint book? My children loved reading Journeys with Mary: Apparitions of our Lady. St Damien of Molokai is a fascinating story of a pretty modern saint living in Hawaii and taking care of the lepers.
The obvious St Nicholas gift would be the DVD, Nicholas: The Boy Who Became Santa. My children have enjoyed all the saints DVD’s we have owned. Actually, we started purchasing them before DVD’s even existed!
Please stop by and check out their Advent and Christmas Page. As you make your Christmas list for your children, Godchildren, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and more, consider saying a thank you to Catholic Child for supporting Suscipio.
Moments of Grace
Join us each week as we pause and look back to see God in the details. Share your list of gratitude, a photo or story showing the marvelous way God whispered in your life, “I’m right here.”
I downloaded 600+ pictures from the camera the kids use. They captured a moment of grace in the late afternoon.
Catholic Woman’s Almanac
Moments of Gratitude
::Chris and the kids having a GREAT time camping
::spending some time with my sister and her family while they were gone
::finding a binder size that may work out well as a planner (5.5 x 8.5)
::smoked pork butt from my brother in law
::rain
::a new school year
Beauty in the Ordinary
Although I would not get rid of my husband and children, it was amazing this week-end how long it took Leo and I to fill a trash can and the washing machine. My kitchen looked way different when it was just me eating verse 8 other people! (On a side note, this made me think of Emily. Her menu plans always sound so good and healthy, being by myself I opted for bagel sandwiches, salad from a bag, cereal with milk, soup from a can…I couldn’t imagine actually cooking a meal for just myself.)
From the Kitchen
Tomorrow, our first day of school, we are having Farmer’s Market Breakfast Casserole. This is delicious! I made up 4 and then froze them. My plan is to thaw them in the fridge on Sunday and cook and eat on Monday mornings. Breakfast always seems to be the hardest because it comes…so early! But it is one of my favorite meals.
Praying
I’m praying for a great school year.
Pondering
Oh my goodness, if you could see all the ponderings running sprints, marathons, and hurdles in my mind! I am pondering how best to use the time God has given me to love my husband and children, educate my children at home, make a home, work on a scriptural resource for parents and children, be a good friend and sister, live my faith joyfully…
I am also pondering why, when I went to purchase a new Bible (because the cover came off my paperback and I don’t think you rebind a paperback?) there were words left out of the RSV verse the RSV 2nd Edition? Thankfully Leo needed to nurse int he store and we were the only ones back in the book corner. When I sat down to nurse him, I started comparing the Bibles I had pulled off the shelf. I really wanted to purchase a large print edition because I’m thinking some day I will need large print (plus it’s easier to read in a dimly lit bedroom while nursing a baby) and if I’m buying a new Bible, might as well make it a keeper. I prefer the Revised Standard Edition, although I own and hear at Mass every Sunday the Douay Rheims. The RSV is just easier for me to understand, thus, I read it more. But the RSV 2nd Edition does not come in large print, only the RSV…how big of a difference, if any can there be I thought. Well, take a look at Sirach 24:1
RSV: Wisdom praises herself, and tells of her glory in the midst of her people.
RSC 2nd Edition: Wisdom will praise herself and is honored in God
Douay Rheims: WISDOM shall praise her own self, and shall be honoured in God, and shall glory in the midst of her people,
Why the difference? Needless to say, I purchased the regular print RSV 2nd Edition.
**Reading**
Catholic Bible-RSV
The Way, Furrow, The Forge (Single Volume Edition)
Pinned
MMmmm-must try a homemade Frosty
Funny!-the definition of volleyball
**In September and maybe even through October, we’ll be reading the The Imitation of Christ
Join us! Share your version of an online almanac, journal or daybook. If you have a blog, link up. If you don’t blog, share in the comments. I love getting a peek into your day to day.
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